Cookery.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 992, 6 March 1891, Page 5

Cookery.

PEACHES. Peaches make capital marmalade; then have you ever made peach brandy ? With a little care this is quite easy to make as follows ! Put the peacheß in an ear them jar, with a close-fitting lid, and cover them with brandy ; let them stand in this for three weeks or a month, then strain off the brandy, and leave this to settle. Cover the peaches with more brandy, and let this stand for a week, when again strain off the brandy and let it Bettle also. When both sets of brandy have settled and cleared, pour the dear part ok carefully and mix them together (the thick part makes excellent flavouring for puddiDgs, &o.), sweeten to taste with a little common syrup and flavour with a few drops of essenoe of almonds. When this mixture is quite dear, bottle it off and cork tightly. If the peaches are covered with syrup they will keep a longtime, and make a delicious sweet. The syrup is quite easy to make, stir a pound of best loaf sugar in a pint and a half of boiling water till It is all melted, then let it boil till it gets thick and is of a pale yellow colour. When finished, pour the syrup into a jug, and bottle when cold, [f carefully skimmed while boiling, and the sugar is really good, it will require no more clarifying. BLACKBERRY SHORTCAKE. Blackberry shortcake is a very delicate and delicious dish, which it is now just the time to make. If the housewife has never had this delightful dish, let her make it now. Put into a vessel half a pouud of powdered sugar with half a pound of wellwashed butter, grate in the rind of half a sound lemon, and with the hands mix well for ten minutes. Break in five whole eggs, one at a time, meanwhile mixing all the time well with the hands. Thsu add gradually half a pound of well-sifted flour aud mix for three minutes. Cover a baiting.sheet with brown paper. Place on top three thin cake rings 9in. in diameter and one inch high. Divide the preparation equally into each of the three rings, then place in a moderate oven to bake for twenty minutes. Remove and allow the oakes thirty minutes more to cool. Lift up the paper with the cakes, turn it upside down on the table, remove the paper and detach the cakes from the rings by passing a knife all round. Pick and dean thoroughly three pints of sound, ripe blackberries ; have a dessert dish with a fancy paper cover ; lay one of the cakes on top of this, Bpread over evenly two table, spoonfuls of whipped cream; then cover with one-half the blaokberriea, nicely and evenly divided ; sprinkle liberally with powdered sugar ; then cover with another cake ; spread over the same quantity of cream as before ; then arrange the other half of the blackberries on top ; dredge again with powdered sugar aud lay the last uake over all, sprinkling with more sugar. If the housewife will carefully prepare this recipe she will have one of the nicest of desserts. INEXPENSIVE SWEET DISHES. Apple Snow : Put a few sponge cakes into a glass dish, pour over them first a glass of sherry and then a oup of good cream or custard. Peel, slice, and core six good apples, simmer them in a stewpan, with a little water, grated lemon peel and juice, and some soft sugar, till they are all pulp ; press this through a sieve, and beat it well with the whites of six eggs till quite white and frothy, lay it over the cakes as unevenly and as lightly as it will go without falling, and serve at once. This will take at least an hour to beat. Iceland Pudding: Dissolve £ ounce of gelatine in a little more than a pint of milk; add 2 ounces of lump sugar, when it is dissolved and cool mix with it the whites of two eggs beaten to a froth, and a wineglass of sherry ; whisk the whole till perfectly stiff, and put all into a mould ; serve with whipped cream or custard. "Vanilla Cream : Mix the well-beaten yolks of three or four eggs with a pint of new milk (cream, if procurable, would be better): add three dessertspoonfuls of sifted sugar, and three or four drops of essence of vanilla, and, last of all, the white of one egg beaten to a firm froth ; put the mixture into a jug, place this in a saucepan of oold water, and let It Bimmer "gently (stirring the c'jntents of the jug all the time) nitil the cream thickens. It must on no account boil, or it will be full of lumps. Pour it into custard glasses, aud strew a little sifted sugar on the top of eaoh glass. STRUDEL. The famous Austrian 1 strudel ’ is made in the following way (fruit of any kind may be used for it) :—One egg is mixed with a pinch of salt and sugar, and as muoh flour as it will take in. This dough is then rolled out as thinly as possible and flattened on a napkin. Then some of the fruit iB put on to the beginning of the dough, a handful of grated sugar, and some lumps of butter. Then the dough is rolled around, and fruit follows again, with butter and sugar, and so on till the whole dough is filled. In an open pan some butter and grease are melted ; the rolls of dough are put into this, ahd are then roasted as if they were pieces of meat. When they are of a nice brown colour on all sides they are served hot, and can be eaten with a sauce of the same fruit, which is rolled into puddings, or without sauce. COLD PUDDING. Soak J ounce of gelatine in a little cold water, and when swollen put it into a saucepan with two breakfast cupfuls of milk, 2 tablespoonfuls of pounded sugar, and the rind of a lemon. Set it on the fire and let it boll gently until the gelatine is melted, stirring it all the time with a wooden spoon. Oil a plain pudding mould, and nearly fill it with alternate layers of dried apricots cut into quartern, dried cherries, or any other candied fruits, mixed together, add stale macaroons and Savoy biscuits, crumbled and used in the proportion of one part sponge cakes to three of macaroons. First put a layer of the mixed fruits, then a good layer of the crumbled oakes, and so on till the mould is nearly full, pour over the whole a little rum ; then pour in the milk prepared as above, hot, quite filliner up the mould with it. It must stand until perfectly cold, when it is ready for serving. Turn it out, and garnish the dish with thin slices of cut lemon,